Staff Correspondent
Expressing his deep concern, Finance Minister AMA Muhith on Saturday said that the economy of the district has been severely affected by the ongoing blockade across the country.
"Growth prospect is now highly doubtful," the Minister told a press conference at his secretariat office while responding to journalists about the prospect of the economy and the possible fallouts from the current volatile political situation.
He said, "Economic activities at the district levels should be allowed to operate for the sake of national economy."
Muhith said, "Business activities in district level are not smoothly going on because of the BNP-led alliance enforced blockade and hartals."
"There is no disruption of life and business activities in Dhaka during the blockade," he however added.
The minister said, "It is not predictable when there would be an end to the blockade programme."
The minister was concerned at what had been happening around the country's political front, but refrained from making specific comment about the possible way to solve the crisis.
The finance minister, however, categorically said that the current blockade and hartals were rather "anti national" move and a ploy to make "enmity to the country." Such vicious move is also aiming at destroying economic growth prospect.
At the press conference, the finance minister gave a picture of the state of the economy in the past six years, with presenting a document, published by the finance division of the his ministry.
Referring to the document, Muhith said the country has made significant advancement in the field of macro economy covering export, import, remittance and reserve.
He said, "Export grew phenomenally to $30 billion last fiscal year, with posting 14.9 per cent growth in the past five years. During the period, remittance and reserve also rose to record highs, which were a reflection of confidence building about a nation."
 Muhith said, "The agriculture and power sectors also moved faster in the past five years, meeting the country's demand for food-grains and energy needs."
The Minister said, "The country would be better off if the internal resource mobilisation, which was 1.5 per cent, could be increased to a higher level, with support from the increasing inflow of foreign funding."
Referring to the country's globally acclaimed success in human development, Muhith said this was happened because of constant move for improvement in the area since 1995.